James Kicinski-McCoy is a writer, specializing in creative marketing and branding, is a co-founder and editor of Mother Magazine, and co-owner of Two Son. She lives with her husband and four children in Nashville, Tennessee.

Search

Wanted

Worn

Categories

All content is copyright and owned by Bleubird unless otherwise stated. You may not take images or content from this site without written permission.

KNIT 101 / SUPPLIES AND CASTING ON

01/10/2014

I am thrilled to welcome and introduce the beautifully talented Rebekka Seale of Camilla Fiber Company as a regular contributor to Bleubird. I have been a long time fan of Rebekka’s work and having her here is such a treat. I have also always wanted to learn how to knit, so this new series is pretty perfect for me and hopefully for many of you. Please show Rebekka a warm welcome. – James

Hi everyone! Rebekka Seale here. I am super excited to be teaming up with my friend James on this series! Quite often, I get emails and questions about good resources for beginning knitters, and I’m looking forward to sharing a hobby that has brought me so much joy. I actually learned to knit several years ago via a few Skype chat sessions with a friend 2,000 miles away, and supplemented that with a lot of online video tutorials. So I’m pretty confident that knitting is a skill that can be learned online! My goal for this series is to take you through the basics of knitting, step-by-step, from the very beginning. The lessons will build on each other, and by the end of the series you will have a few precious handmade wearables to keep or share.

First, let’s talk supplies. For your very first project, all you will need is a ball of yarn and two needles. Yarn comes in several different weights…I learned using extra-bulky yarn, and love how easy it is to work with. The yarn pictured here is handspun alpaca from my shop, and I also like Wool Ease Thick & Quick for a first project. You can also go to your local craft store or yarn shop and just ask for bulky or extra bulky yarn. For needles, you can choose between metal and wooden. It’s really a matter of feel…metal needles are slippery and the yarn glides over them quickly. But wooden needles are warmer and a little easier to control, so I recommend them for your first project. Needles come in different sizes, too, and you want to pick the size that works best with your yarn. For this project, you will need US size 13 (9mm) single-point wooden needles. These bamboo needles are inexpensive and available in most craft stores, as well as online.

Now, we can get started! To demystify the process a little, knitting is basically transferring stitches from one needle to the other and back again, over and over. For our first project, we’ll be making a cozy scarf. Our first step will be to “cast on” stitches to one of the needles. There are several different cast-on methods, but we are going to use what I call the “thumb cast-on”. Unroll a few feet of yarn from your ball, and make a simple loop about ten inches from the end of the yarn (these ten inches will be our “tail”…we will weave it in at the end). Make this loop into a slip knot by bringing the yarn attached to the ball up through the loop. It will look sort of like a pretzel.

Pick up your needle, slip it through the second loop you just created, and pull on the tail to tighten. This is the slip knot that attaches the yarn to the needle, and it also counts as your first cast-on stitch.

Now we need to cast on 19 more stitches! To do this, hold the needle in your right hand, and drape the yarn attached to the ball over your left thumb as shown. Take the point of your needle up under the yarn on your thumb, then take your thumb out of the loop.

Pull on the yarn to tighten the loop around the needle. Now you have two stitches cast on! Repeat casting on with the thumb loop 18 more times, for a total of 20 cast-on stitches.

This is what it should look like! Kind of a mess, but it’s the beginning of something awesome. Next time we will learn the basic knit stitch, and start working on the body of our scarf!

107 comments

This is so great! I recently taught myself to crochet and was interested in finding a tutorial on knitting. I also recently (like days ago) discovered this blog and I LOVE it and am so thrilled to see this Knit 101. Thank you James and Rebekka!

I taught myself to knit a couple of years ago (from a book, and then online tutorials for the more complicated stitches,) and have fallen in love with the craft. I look forward to this series and learning some new tips and tricks!

fantastic! gorgeous photos…love the skein & can’t wait to check out the shop.

i have been knitting for 10 years and i continue to learn as the days/years go by. when i teach friends, i always tell them this is the trickiest part of learning (casting on). newbies…keep practicing and you’ll get it!

I love this so far! Beautiful instructions and photographs — definitely hope to see more of this! For those of us who procrastinate on getting supplies…about how often will this series pop up? Thanks for sharing!

I learnt the basic of knitting with my mom. And decided to go back to it a few months ago after moving to Amsterdam in prevention of the super cold months to come, I thought a wool blanket would be perfect but … my problem is I am so slowwww … The blanket will have to wait until next winter I guess… haha

Oh I think I’ll really like this series! I’ve been wanting to learn how to knit for so long. I tried teaching myself once but I was just bad, bad, bad so I just stuck with crocheting lol. I’ll have to try again.